The Word of the Year season is now officially over. Last Friday night, the members of the American Dialect Society voted on their choice for the 2016 Word of the Year, and they – the very group that started the trend 27 years ago – ended the WotY season by dubbing “dumpster fire” as Word of the Year (yes, in this case, words). The ADS has multiple categories (Digital Word of the Year, Slang Word of the Year, Euphemism of the Year, etc.), so information about "dumpster fire" and a link to their complete WotY list is HERE.

We finished our own countdown of Words of the Year on New Year’s Eve, and “divided” took the top honor. Our complete list is HERE, and we wrote some background on selecting "divided" for the top honor HERE.

Below is a list of some of the other chosen words for 2016:

"Dumpster fire" is not new. It’s been around for a while; its “top definition” on Urban Dictionary dates back to 2008. However, the Word of the Year does not have to be a new word. David Bowie (at least that’s @socilox’s name on Twitter), a sociolinguist and dialectologist at the University of Alaska Anchorage, noted that words often “get in under the ‘not new, but newly (re)emergent’ rubric” – and we suspect everyone would agree that most of 2016 was nothing more than uncontrollable dumpster fire.

​​As a matter of fact, “dumpster fire” took a political turn in 2016 when it morphed into “trumpster fire,” thanks to the trumpster fire that is Donald Trump.

​The origins of “dumpster fire” actually date back to the late-1800s when Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) first used the term in his now classic poem “The Dumpster Fire we've all known" (below on the left). Dickinson wrote the poem about Fredreich Drümpf, a distant relative of Donald Trump. Information about Drümpf is HERE. Dickinson’s poem also inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem “The largest Fire ever known" (below on the right).Of course, we now begin our year-long quest for the 2017 Words of the Year. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there's no reason for "launch ready alert" & "thermonuclear" to make the list!

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

The dumpster fire we’ve all knownOccurred throughout our sphere –And so it came as no surpriseIt’s now Word of the Year –Logophiles will report to menThis honor now attainedWith hopes some future morningWe won’t get burned again.

By Emily Dickinson:

The largest Fire ever knownOccurs each Afternoon –Discovered is without surpriseProceeds without concern –Consumes and no report to menAn Occidental Town,Rebuilt another morningTo be again burned down.

Can you read the pictographic statement above? It says, "The Oxford English Dictionary 'Word of the Year' is the 'tears of joy' emoji."

That's right. We're not making this up. The OED WOTY2015 is the "tears of joy" emoji.

There has been a wide range of reactions since the announcement, and most of the responses have been either...

Why was the "tears of joy" emoji chosen?

The OED site states, "Emojis (the plural can be either emoji or emojis) have been around since the late 1990s when they were invented by Tamotsu Emoji, but 2015 saw their use increase hugely....and according to frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the world, the 'tears of joy' emoji was chosen because it was the most used emoji globally."

Pictured at the right: Tamotsu Emoji, inventor of the pictographic icons used to express ideas and emotions.

What's your reaction to the OED choice? Well, if it's less than enthusiastic, fret not. The ELD Museum list of the "Words of the Year 2015" begins on December 1st. To follow our countdown, click HERE. The official "Word of the Year" for 2015 will be announced at 12:00 noon EST on December 31st. When we reveal the WOTY, you'll smack your forehead and say, "Of course that's the word of the year!" Then you'll probably shed a few tears of joy -- and then you can tweet our WOTY along with the OED WOTY. #justsaying